MAR 8 1990 BROADWAY INTER! Volume 1 Number 1 FEBRUARY 1990 Yet the honeymoon never lasts forever and NEW YEAR'S EVE!! FIJI WELCOMES THE1990'S By Peter Hasapis by the late 80's things began getting rough for Omega; 1987 started off poorly with an alleged racial incident, and by the Spring of 1988 a growing number of student radicals known as the SFARFS (Students for a Reformed Fraternity Sys tem) had begun to challenge fraternities' right to exist as single-sex organizations. ■ It was done with class, style and the usual Phi Gam ridiculousness; Omega graduates and undergraduates alike rang in the new decade at John Murphy's annual fiesta at the Barbizon Hotel. Tuxedos were donned, beer and cham pagne were consumed, and by the end of the night it had dawned on just about everybody that some where in the blur the.80'"s had cashed in to make room for the 1990's. Since about three million newspaper articles, television programs and books have already successfully made all of us thoroughly finished with, tired of and even annoyed with the 1980's, it seems only appropriate that I should do the same thing. Instead of talking about East Central Europe, Wall Street and greed, though, I'll spend the rest of the page reflecting on Omega Fiji's last ten years and the 1990's that lie ahead. We all know by now about 1982's huge loan and renovation, and since Frank Moyer(CC '91) will tell you about the debt crisis in his treasurer's report, let's just say that 538 took on a completely new look. By 1984 the house's size was increasing exponentially, and it wasn't just in the numbers. The increasing number of football players left Fiji with the safest and most well-kept zoo on 114th Street. As brotherhood reached a peak of 84 members in 1985, the house began to flourish in intramural sports, winning four con secutive football championships - a record that is still running. Fiji, naturally, survived the scare and by 1989 was undergoing severe facial reconstruction in the interest of passing an inspection and rene gotiating on I982's loan. Greatly improved relations with national have enabled Omega to leave the I980's on a strong, confident note. If the 80's were a time of change and transition, the 1990's look to be stable. Improved relations on all sides of the ball have left Fiji in a comfortable position on campus, and the newly elected cabinet is ambitious and solid as a core. In 1991 Omega will celebrate its 125th anniver sary in true Fiji style, so be prepared for a gala bash of monstrous proportions. PIG DINNER MARCH 30,1990 FACULTY HOUSE INSIDE THE FIJI: President's Report...p. 2 Treasurer's Report...p.3 Sports Wrap-up... p.4 Phi Gam Retreat... p.5 Alumni Update... p.6 \r\ngraduate brothers did not receive invitations to the PRESIDENT'S REPORT By Craig Nobert Nonis Pig Dinner last spring, we have updated our mailing lists by cooperating with Columbia's alumni office. In exchange for volunteer work on their phone-a-thon, the office agreed to provide us with all the necessary information. More fre quent mailing to our alumni include invitations to Although Omega's activities this fall were numerous and varied, they all stemmed fix)m a unified committment by the brotherhood to establish continuity in the chapter by setting precedents for its operation. A chapter retreat provided the opportunity for the brothers to set House Corporation and Board of Chapter Advi sors in the hopes of creating continuity at Omega. goals and learn the organizational skills required Any help in this area is welcome. our Homecoming tailgate party and post-game reception and this publication. We also are trying to set up a core group of alumni to act as the to achieve them. The establishment of a commit come out of the retreat as it enabled us to work to Fraternity Values: By ordering new ritual equipment and providing our brothers and pledges gether as a unit rather than against each other. with more extensive education in this area we are The brotherhood no longer behaves like an Eng trying to create an atmosphere that will more fully exemplify the ideals of the fraternity. Our chapter tee system proved to be the most vital element to lish soccer mob (except when at actual games or yother social functions), and the result was an incredibly productive semester in the following retreat included the formal initiation of ten new brothers in a cabin in upstate New York. areas- Community Relations: We are not, nor have we House Finances: This summer we found that our house's finacial situation could no longer be ignored. The physical plant of538 W114 Street was rapidly deteriorating and a growing outstand ing debt with Columbia caused the University to start foreclosure procedings. In response, under graduate brothers poured hundreds of man-hours into repairing the house and abating city viola tions; the national fraternity was enlisted to aid us in dealing with our mortgage; and steps were taken to make the HouseT!orporation a larger and more cohesive group. ciirrent position? Talks are underway witlrdie University about refinancing our mortgage. Director of Business affairs Bob Anderegg is coming to New York to set up a House Corporation and Board of Chapter Advisors, and we are filing for an emergency city inspection to gain a certificate of occupancy needed to refinance. ever been, an organization devoted primarily to community service. As a social organization, however, we feel it important to deal with prob lems that affect us in relation to the community around us. Despite its billing as a liberal institu tion, Coluinbia has found itself stuck in the middle of rising racial tensions. By co-hosting a forum on racial insensitivity with the local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha on NovemberlOth, Omega has taken the first step towards starting a dialogue on campus to relieve such tensions. Brotherhood: Those of you who came back to Homecoming weekend hopefully enjoyed your selves and will keep coming back to meet old ftiends. Graduate brothers are welcome at regular events such as McSorley's etc. Drop us a line. Hopefully, the Broadway FUI will become a regular publication and will become a medium which Graduate brothers can use to communicate Alumni Relations: Due to complaints that many with one another. Please send us news,criticism, and messages for fnends. \r\nTreasurer's Rap By Frank Moyer As Omega of Phi Gamma Delta ap proaches its 125th anniversary, it also celebrates its 75th year of owning the four story brownstone we all know as 538 West 114th Street. Yet Phi Gamma Delta International could come to the rescue by offering us a second mortgage for $75,000(to cover most of the accraed interest) at 2% above prime rate. The Broadway Fiji Peter Hasapis Peter Hasapis Editor -In - Chief Publisher Craig Nobert Jay Myers unfortunately the latter may not be much cause for celebration. On June 13, 1989, Columbia University sent the Omega Association a letter of accelera tion (the first step in foreclosure proceedings); in short. Omega may lose the house. The history of the Building Loan Mort gage with the University goes back to 1982, when the Omega Association borrowed $236,000 for a complete - and very necessary - overhaul. Due to the high interest rates at the time, the mortgage was financed at a ridiculous15%. This astro Associate Editor Associate Editor Frank Moyer Brian Kennedy "Mr. Guy" Associate Editor Mike Kanner Dean Temple The $50,000 Man Social Consultant Michael Girouard Graduate Consultant nomical rate, when compounded with the under graduate chapter's inability to meet consistent payments to the Omega Association, has led to Retreat con^tfrom p.4 the accumulation of $99,473 in interest debt alone. Only $500 of the principal has been paid. The rest of the $123,000 that the Omega Associa would chidingly yell"Form a committee!" when tion has paid Columbia University has been in any work needed to be done. Now committees are a realityand even appear to be at the forefront interest payments; the debt now stands $335,473. of the renaissance of the Omega Chapter. Along So why not refinance? Columbia Univer sity refuses to refinance the mortgage until the house is rid of the housing violations which have been outstanding since the renovation. As an attempt to solve this part of the problem, the undergraduate chapter put in a total of over 1000 man hours this summer to both eliminate all the existing violations and improve the overall ap pearance of the house. The Omega Association is now awaiting a Letter of Refinancing from the University, which will allow them to obtain an "Emergency Inspec tion" from the City. Should the house pass the inspection, negotiations with to refinance will proceed immediately, hopefully at a rate of 10-11 percent. Additionally, there is a possibility that with the traditional committees^rushj'cominu- nity service, house managem^t,and graduate relations, we now have^ Sibling committe^of two brothers, whose job is-to-arran ge ttipsr-t^^ Atlantic City every month. After a day of solid work, we ended the retreat on Saturday afternoon with closing re marks from Rich, Joey, George,Frank, and Craig. The ertsuing semester proved to be one of the House's most productive to date, and hopefully the new cabinet will schedule a retreat next year to continue this excellent tradition. \r\nPHI GAM RETREAT By Jay Myers money-grinding New Yorkers, and the heat caused by 20,000 people packed like sardines into Grand Central were all offset by patience, a few beers, and Omega comedian Roger Dickes' account of the situation to reporters who were on the scene. To an interviewer in front of a televi On Friday, September 7 of the Fall 1989 semester,28 active Omega's left the safety and security of New York City for an overnight retreat sion camera, Roger exclaimed,"I am having the sensation of an altered state of consciousness... I believe that this is the primordial out-of-body- ex perience that I am involved in." With this kind of in the wild and untamed natural terrain known as Mountain Lakes Park in North Salem, NY. We entertainment, the two hour delay was no prob were joined by new and improved field secretary lem. Joey Friedman,Purple Legionaire Rich Clew,and 1988 graduate Mike Girouard. And the surprise Also, a note of appreciation goes out from all of us here at Omega to the Nu Beta chapter at Rutgers. They helped us to overcome another major obstacle. Although we had our officer robes, we hadn't yet received robes for the rest of the brotherhood. Fortvuiately, the Rutgers chapter loaned us theirs for oiu* initiation ceremony,and this was helpful in unifying the brotherhood in of the weekend came when everybody's favorite section chief, George Stemad, made a guest appearance on Saturday morning to provide his usual insights into our work. The inspiration for this particular outing was the Fiji Academy which had taken place in early August. Craig Nobert and Frank Moyer,the residing President and Treasurer,respectively, attended the convention, not really knowing what to expect. Because Omega's relationship with Phi Gam International had been anything but ideal in recent years, Craig and Frank were a little nervous about facing them at Ohio State University. Instead of the anticipated verbal thrashing, ritual. Thanks again to Nu Beta. The initiation ceremony (with the addition of the robes, a serene setting, and a proper, serious reading)turned out to be the most beautiful ritual I've seen in my time as a brother in this chapter. I really believe that it was exemplary of the kind of rituals that this chapter can have regularly with almost minimal effort. Additionally, it served to get everyone's mentaljuices flowing in the right the Omegas found that intense work with national and other chapters provided a considerable rejuve nation of Phi Gam spirit Their enthusiasm was direction. easily passed on to the rest of the cabinet who in was in the quality of the campfire discussions. turn used it to energize and motivate the entire brotherhood. And so it was all set. Omega set out for The most immediate manifestation of this My preconceived notions of post-ritual rowdiness were proven wrong,and after a few hotdogs and about a half an hour of blowing off steam two upstate New York with several cases of hot dogs, buns, pop-tarts and other assorted necessities. As good discussions started up around separate campfires. While one group debated various is inevitable with things of this nature, we encoun tered a few obstacles on our way. Our first issues under the community service/environ mental relations heading, the group I was in pitfall came early when we encountered a situ ation that all you commuters out there are proba bly very familiar with: Grand Central Station + discussed the importance of house maintenance one train breakdownin a bad place + Friday afternoon + New York City = A LIVING HELL! The emotional stress, the rudeness of wretched. and ritual. Saturday morning saw the extension of Phi Gam spirit to levels not thought possible. In this chapter, the word "committee" had always been considered a four-letter word; at meetings, people continuedonPage3 \r\nCOLUMBIA SPORTS By Peter Hasapis Is anybody out there friends with athletic director A1 Paul? Because if you are, might I recommend you staying the hell away from any advice he might have on how to succeed. His record over the years in college's two major sports, football and basketball, is nothing short of pathetic. At press time the combined record of the gridders and the cagers for the 1989-90 aca ball program, however, was shaken to its very foundations by the fleeing of Wayne Szoke to Monmouth College. All but three members of Szoke's first recruiting class of 1989 left the team within two years, and every last member of the class of 1990 deserted almost immediately there after. Thus new coach Wally Halas, now in his third season, has found himself with a very young albeit talented squad. The starting five consists of three sophomores and two fireshmen, and there are only four upperclassmen on the entire squad. One thing they do have is talent; Sophomores Dane Holmes, Russell Steward, and Eric Speaker are fencing and swimming teams fare extremely well within the Ivy League and on a national level. liQ^iough,it-nM^Miot.be slowly blossoming into excellent players, and with some more experience the Lions should be competitive within the next two years. In any case, other Columbia teams have fared well over the past year. The soccer team reached the quarterfinals of the 1989 NCAA tour nament before being ousted by Rutgers 3-1. The fencing team looks to be well on their way to a con^etely the fault of the artificially tanned, weiLspoken athletic difector.-JBotlHherfootBall third consecutive NCAA championship, and the swim team is looking to successfully defend last and the"Basketball teams have suffered from a year's ECAC championship. Fiji brother Joe Priesmeyer, CC'91,is one of the diving team's demic year was 4- 27; at least things can only get better. It is some consolation that the soccer, lack of continuity in leadership and coaching. The Lion gridders,for one, watched Larry McElreavy build up a solid, cohesive squad of his own recruits that finally won a game - and even two - to snap a 44-game losing streak in 1988. Yetjust when the Lions looked to be contenders, a scandal rocked McElreavy and he found himself ousted in favor of Ray Tellier. And the bad timing of the escapade - right smack in the middle of the recruiting season - left Tellier with little time to pull in a strong freshman class. The Light Blue were able to pull out only one victory in front ranners, so look for him on the board if you attend a meet. BROTHERS: IT'S COMING!!! FIJI ISLAND 1989, at Cornell. When a coach recruits an entire squad and is then displaced, a funny thing happens; players drop like flies from the team. This usually hap pens because the players feel betrayed or don't APRIL 28,1990 want to play for someone who didn't recruit them. This was not the case for the football team, who actually voted out Coach McElreavy. The basket BE THERE \r\nALUMNI UPDATE first year of medical school at Mount Sinai in New York City. Homecoming '89 was a great success at the Fiji house. The weekend began on Friday night, October 20, when graduate brothers congre gated at the Quarter Moon Saloon to share beers and swap stories in the usual Phi Gam tradition. Things got really ridiculous when the undergrads showed up later in the evening. The football team's convincing loss to Yale on Saturday dampened no spirits, and this was largely due to the tailgate party that went on throughout the game. The traditional post-game reception gave us a chance to catch up with some graduate brothers. If your name isn't here and you'd like it to be, please retum the enclosed form to us and let us know what's doing. We'll print it next issue. Tony Augello,SEAS '89 and Rob Laplaca, CC'89,are still roomates and currently reside on 111th Street Rob is working as a paralegal and will attend law school in the fall; Tony also plans to attend graduate school in the near future. Matt Minnetian, CC'87, will also be attending business school, probably in the fall; he still has not decided which school to attend. Randall Bessolo, CC'87, is currently employed Goldman Sachs'real estate develop ment department He is based in Chicago,IL. Promise. Sherman Ewing,CC'87,is currently a musician with a New York City band. The Bu reaucrats. As lead vocalist and songwriter, Sherman is the frontman for the band. These guys are up and coming,and any opportunity to see Adam Klotz, CC'89,is thoroughly enjoying his first year at the University of Vir ginia Law School. Neil Gorsuch,CC'88,is still at Harvard Law School. He will graduate in 1991. them should not be missed. Michael Girouard,CC'88,is working as Jeff Ammeen,CC '85,is also a musician in a local band. Biggest Kids. Jeff is not only the band's lead guitarist and core but may possibly possess New York City's finest set of chops. See an analyst for the Manhattan investment bank of Goldman,Sachs & Co. them when you're in town; this is another one you Richard Clew,CC'87,is currently em ployed by J. P. Morgan & CO.in New York City. can't miss. He is also Omega's Purple Legionnaire. Mike Behringer, CC'89,is currently a first year law student at the University of Michi Matt Barr,CC'87, is working in adver tising for Sports Illustrated. gan. Josh Krevitt, CC'89,is currently a first year law student at Boston University. Raf Squitieri, CC'89,is finishing up his Mike Kanner,CC'90,refuses to admit he is a graduate brother even though he is done taking classes. He currently resides at 538 West 114th Street; stop by and bother him sometime. If you don't he's liable to get to you first. \r\nRAP SWEET TO US! Please fill this sheet out and return it A.S.A.P. to 538 West 114 St, New York, NY 10025. Name: Class:. Current Address:. Current Profession:. Offices/Positions Held:. Family Information: Stories?. Advice: